This documentation was written to describe the 1.6.x series of
Subversion. If you are running a different version of Subversion,
you are strongly encouraged to visit http://www.svnbook.com/ and instead consult the version of this
documentation appropriate for your version of Subversion.

Moving and Removing Repositories

Subversion repository data is wholly contained within the
repository directory. As such, you can move a Subversion
repository to some other location on disk, rename a repository,
copy a repository, or delete a repository altogether using the
tools provided by your operating system for manipulating
directories—mv, cp
-a, and rm -r on Unix platforms;
copy, move, and
rmdir /s /q on Windows; vast numbers of mouse
and menu gyrations in various graphical file explorer
applications, and so on.

Of course, there's often still more to be done when trying
to cleanly affect changes such as this. For example, you might
need to update your Subversion server configuration to point to
the new location of a relocated repository or to remove
configuration bits for a now-deleted repository. If you have
automated processes that publish information from or about your
repositories, they may need to be updated. Hook scripts might
need to be reconfigured. Users may need to be notified. The list
can go on indefinitely, or at least to the extent that you've
built processes and procedures around your Subversion
repository.

In the case of a copied repository, you should also consider
the fact that Subversion uses repository UUIDs to distinguish
repositories. If you copy a Subversion repository using a
typical shell recursive copy command, you'll wind up with two
repositories that are identical in every way—including
their UUIDs. In some circumstances, this might be desirable.
But in the instances where it is not, you'll need to generate a
new UUID for one of these identical repositories. See
the section called “Managing Repository UUIDs” for more about
managing repository UUIDs.